Tuesday, March 29, 2016

How To Use Blab For Marketing

Last week I wrote a post in response to a comment left from a reader of the GetResponse blog. A few weeks ago, the now sadly departed Kerry Butters wrote a blog entitled ‘2 New Social Networks To Consider For 2016’. The social networks in question were Peach and Blab.

Kerry’s post was introductory, which is to say that although she gave a thorough overview an appraisal of the two networks, she left the ‘how to use these sites for marketing’ part out. This indeed prompted a comment to be left by TechHiring.com, who wanted to know more.

I’m pleased to say that we took up the task, and decided to dedicate a whole post to each new network that Kerry brought to our collective attention.

How To Use Blab For Marketing

Ok, so let’s quickly refresh – what is Blab, and what’s it all about?

Well, Blab followed in the footsteps of Meerkat and Periscope, both released last year (as was Blab), by presenting to the online world yet another app with live video streaming as its primary function.

Unlike its predecessors, however, Blab surpasses in achievement by allowing for up to 4 people to be live streaming at one time.

As you will probably infer (not least by its rather aptly chosen name), Blab is therefore a platform on which live conversations can take place, which are concurrently broadcast online to be viewed by subscribers. It really is as simple as that – and it’s immediately apparent just how useful this platform could be to marketers if they managed to ignite a great conversation that got the whole internet talking to them live in real time.

So let’s now look at exactly how you can start harnessing the power of Blab to market your business.

Interview An Industry Expert

Let’s start right at top of the funnel.

Right now you’re reading a prime piece of ToFu (Top of the Funnel) content marketing. Here at GetResponse we specialise in email marketing, landing pages, and webinars, which is to say that we don’t specifically offer any services that will help you with any other forms of digital marketing – such as marketing on Blab.

However, we produce this ToFu content, which gives advice on different forms of digital marketing because we know, firstly, that subscribers to our services will find it useful (i.e., if they’re involved in email marketing, then it stands to reason that they’ll be engaging in the likes of social media marketing as well), and secondly that we may attract new readers to our blog, some of whom we’ll be able to convert into paying customers (and more traffic means more links, which is great for SEO to boot).

Indeed, this is what content marketing is all about – adding value to your brand by producing free content. And of course, the more relevant the content is to your audience, the more value it brings.

And so, in my opinion, you’d be hard pressed to find more value in any form of free content than you would by managing to get an industry expert/celebrity onto Blab and have him/her speak live across the web. Let’s imagine you were selling sports equipment. Just think of how many viewers you’d get tuning in if you were able to bag a live interview with someone from a nationally known sporting team. Of course, it wouldn’t have to be Messi or Ronaldo, but rather someone from ‘behind the scenes’ at the of likes Real Madrid or Barcelona football clubs, who works at the training ground with these figures. And don’t think that this is an unlikely scenario either – this is the age of digital marketing, and it would be just as good for the club as it would be for your business selling the club’s wares to conduct such an interview. If you pitched it right, you could strike a deal very easily.

For some inspiration on this sort of thing, check out this LinkedIn post by Dave Robertson who conducted live interviews of professional runners at the finishing line of the Berlin Marathon – genius.

Showcase New products

With 4 video feeds, you really can get creative with your product demos. For example, if you’re in the business of selling fashion accessories, then you can very easily make use of all 4 feeds by having one as the narrator, and then the 3 others broadcasting models wearing the accessories with different outfits. Simple, but effective.

Provide Live Customer Service

Another simple but effective idea is to have a representative of the company answer live questions from customers. You could set this up as a simple Q&A session where viewers are invited to submit questions either via the messaging function, or join in as participants in the live chat.

What’s great about this is that, once the Blab session is over, you have an opportunity to edit the video and repurpose the content for social media posts or even your FAQ page.

Replace Some Blog Posts

If you’re blogging regularly (and you should be), then why not mix things up a bit by throwing in a Blab once a week instead?

Let’s face facts – blogging takes time. I know this because it’s all I do all day every day. And I know that, despite my best efforts, some blog posts that I may have taken hours to complete might only get read by a handful of people – and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here.

So why not instead turn your next blog idea into a video chat hosted on Blab? You can still do all the research you’d normally do, but instead of writing it all down, film it. And instead of replying to comments, reply in real-time to live questions. We all know that we’ve got to humanise our respective brands as much as possible, and live streaming is a great way to do this.

Host Breakout Sessions At Live Events

This is something that Blab was surely made for. The next time you’re at a trade show, or some other form of mass summit where anybody who’s anybody in your industry will be, take a moment to open up your mobile and start hosting a blab.

Not everyone can make it to these events. I was lucky enough to attend Europe’s largest Web Summit in Ireland last year – and even though there some 20,000 attendees, there were still millions of others around the globe who would have liked to have made it, but couldn’t.

But with Blab, you can make a name for yourself by bringing these sorts of summits live to the audiences who couldn’t attend. If there are some hot new startups at these events, then start an interview with them, and have your Blab audience ask real-time questions. The world has become a small place with the internet, but it’s even smaller with apps like Blab.

Got any more cool ideas about using Blab for business marketing? Let us know in the comments below

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I am a web designer from NJ who loves getting involved with new web project. I have also have a burning passion for digital marketing and hope to bring out an info product on web design in the near future :)